Pages

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Breaking off the Greek Mindset

This is from the blog Sons of Issachar:Mike ParsonsLast time I shared with you a couple of PowerPoint slides relating to the Greek (Western) and Hebrew (Eastern) mindsets. This week I want to look just a little more closely at the contrast between them, and then I would like to pray for God to reveal where we are being robbed by our Western way of looking at things, and break it off us.

Separation vs unity

Here is the first of those slides again.

Let’s take these a line at a time.

In our Greek understanding, the goal of salvation is to escape this world and go to God’s dwelling place in heaven. So everything is focussed on what will be: very little about what is now. In Hebrew thought, the goal of salvation is to prepare a place fit for God’s dwelling here, among His people. He wants His kingdom to come on earth.

Linked with that, where does the kingdom of God exist? The Greek view says it is in heaven, not on the earth, whereas the Hebrew view is that the kingdom of God is God’s reign among people here upon the earth.

So is Jesus coming in order to take us away from this world? No, Jesus is coming to reign over and through us in this world. We need to focus on God’s kingdom being ‘now’, not separating it out. “Get your ticket now or you might miss the train”: that is, if we are honest, how many of us had the gospel presented to us.

And then: “Now you have your ticket, just hold on tight. In the end Jesus will come and rescue you”, rather than what Jesus preached: “The Kingdom of God is coming! It’s right here, right now! Get ready to serve the King and manifest the kingdom”.Do you see how each misunderstanding arises from the previous one? Once you begin to go down the route prescribed by Western thought, you find there is more and more separation becoming entrenched in your thinking, and less and less of an understanding of the unity of God’s purpose.

Form vs purpose

If we look at the second slide, we can see how this works out in practice:The Greek mindset looks at the form of something. For example, let’s take a tree. It has roots, a trunk, branches, leaves – that is what I mean by looking at its form. In the Hebrew way of thinking, it is more about what it is for. What is the purpose of a tree? To bear fruit. They are really not interested in the fact that it might have roots, a trunk, branches and leaves. Does it bear fruit? If not, it is of no value at all. Remember how Jesus cursed the fig tree that was not producing any fruit? It is the difference between an actual, practical outworking and just a mental, theoretical understanding.So: Greek: what I do; Hebrew: how I do it. We can do lots of things from the wrong motive – but we know that God looks on the heart.Greek thinking separates out our religious life from our secular life. Family, work, school, friendships on the one hand; and church on the other. But God wants His kingdom to be flowing through all of our lives, with no separation. There is no secular for us. Our lives are a whole, they are unified, and we bring the kingdom of God into everything.In Greek thinking, the heavenly was separated from the earthly. There was no overlap. Bill Johnson wrote a book called When Heaven Invades Earth. Bottom line is, that is impossible in Greek thinking. But for us, we can live in both places: we live in the realms of heaven, and we bring that spiritual realm into our lives on earth, at the same time: not in the future but now.‘Knowledge’ to the Greek mind is information. But to the Hebrew, you cannot know anything without experiencing it. It is all about knowledge through spiritual encounter. If all I am doing in this blog is imparting information to you, we are missing the mark. That is why from time to time I also include praying for you, which gives you the opportunity to encounter Him through the Holy Spirit and experience the reality of His truth for yourself (of course you can always pray these things through even when I don’t specifically include a prayer).It’s not what you know, but who you know! We know God, but it is perfectly possible to read the Bible from cover to cover and have all the information, but never actually know Him. We need to encounter everything in the Word of God for ourselves.Works, or grace. A creed or the deed. Stating what you believe, or actually living that way? Faith without works is absolutely dead. Jesus said, “If I do not do the works that my Father does, don’t believe me” (John 10:37). You don’t hear too many sermons on that verse.We don’t analyse: we live. It is about who we are and what we do. God Himself says He is the I AM.I want to pray now. If you think you may have any mindsets, any of the Greek way of thinking, we want to break that off right now.[If you would like to hear an audio version of this prayer, click here.]Father, I pray that the power of Your Holy Spirit will come.Break any deception off our mindsetsAny way in which we have come under false doctrines,False teachings, mindsets of the enemy,Greek thinking that would cause us to separate our lives out.I come, Lord, with the sword of Your Spirit,To break that off our mindsets right nowIn Jesus’ Name.To be loosed from any control that the enemy has had over usThrough traditions of men and demonic doctrinesThat put things into the future instead of the present;That put things into heaven instead of on earth;That have separated us out;That have caused us to believe and not do.I break those mindsets right now.I break any doctrines over us that would hinder Your churchFrom pursuing and seeing the kingdom of God fill the earthAs it is in heaven.Holy Spirit, come and reveal to anyone reading thisAnything which is a hindrance, an obstacle, a stumbling blockTo our being able to fulfil our destiny as God’s people.I pray that You would send gathering angels into our livesTo gather any stumbling blocks from us.Gather them from our mind, gather them from our heart,So that we believe and stand on the truth of Your WordThat through kingdom and covenant,You are going to fill the earth with Your kingdom.You are going to come back for a victorious, overcoming churchThat has risen above every other thing.Because ‘of the increase of Your kingdom there is no end’.Empower us with the power of Your Holy SpiritTo take Your kingdomAnd manifest Your kingdom through our lives,Every day of our lives:In work, in home, in our neighbourhood.That we would manifest Your kingdom in power and authorityDoing the works that Jesus did.I loose us from everything that would hinder usFrom that fulfilment of Your purposes for our livesIn Jesus’ Name.Amen._____"Though swordless, these soldiers of Christ fought the might of imperial Rome and won . . .Unlettered they unblushingly declared the whole counsel of God and eventually staggered the intellectual Greeks."--Leonard Ravenhill

Translate

All scripture is given by inspiration of God

Intercession

"All your circumstances are in the hand of God, therefore never think it strange concerning the circumstances you are in. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to enter into the agony of intercession, but to utilize the common-sense circumstances God puts you in, and the common-sense people He puts you amongst by His providence, to bring them before God's throne and give the Spirit in you a chance to intercede for them. In this way God is going to sweep the whole world with His saints."

Popular Posts Last 30 Days

Blog Archive

Multitudes in the Valley of Decision

Echoes of Sodom and Gomorrah

"When we violate the laws of God, the moral philosophy of a whole generation becomes such that people can flaunt their evil and have it wind up being celebrated on the front page of our newspapers--then God will withhold His hand no longer!"

Popular Posts in the Past Year

Soldiers of Christ

"Though swordless, these soldiers of Christ fought the might of imperial Rome and won . . .Unlettered they unblushingly declared the whole counsel of God and eventually staggered the intellectual Greeks."

Forgiveness without Repentance

“The chief danger of the 20th Century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and Heaven without Hell.”

--William Booth

Apostles and Prophets

The Lord Will Come With Fire

The image at the top of the page is a painting at the Great Plains Art Museum, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.